REVIEW: Lion's Den (2008)

Stumbling out of bed in a stupor, Julia Zarate (Martina Gusman) doesn’t recognize or perhaps refuses to recognize her bloodstained hands and the lifeless body in the next room over. That is the genius behind Pablo Trapero’s stark, unflinching Lion’s Den (2008) — he forgoes Hollywood transparency in favor of delicious ambiguity, never truly revealing whether Julia murdered her boyfriend or is simply a scapegoat. Regardless, she is convicted of the crime and transported to a maximum-security prison where she gives birth to Tomas (Tomás Plotinsky), and strikes up a relationship with fellow prisoner, Marta (Laura García). Caught between the beginning of her son’s life and her own dwindling future, Julia is devastated when her mother (Elli Medeiros) takes Tomas away. It’s a dilemma of Brechtian proportions — should Julia keep her son or let him leave out of love? You may never know whether Julia’s a murderer, but with Gusman’s volatile, spellbinding performance, you’ll definitely recognize her as a lioness, especially when she explodes after losing Tomas and rages on into the night, clawing at the ties that bind. (Liesl Swanbeck)

Opens at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas on Friday, July 31st.